Todays Topic In Journalism

 This is the first official action project of my senior year at GCE. For the first two weeks in "Journalism" we have to establish what fake news is and how to identify a good source of information. After deciding that the best way to tell what is solid information is by research, we had to ask how and what do we research? When looking at study results for example, you should look at who is conducting the study and how credible they may be by ethos but also who might be funding the study. We talked with a journalist from the Wall Street Journal named Julie Wernau. She talked primarily about what a journalist does and some personal experience which helped out one of my classmates, JH, that is a writer. For the AP I will be trying to work as a journalist by establishing an issue or event in my community by interview and research. 

Vaccine hesitancy is leading us back to quarantine

Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic (2019-2021), the country has seen many people remain hesitant to be vaccinated as distrust in governmental and civil forces levels are quite high. Locally, vaccine hesitancy is high in communities on the south side of Chicago. There may be differing opinions, but one thing is for sure, vaccines are not trusted. With only around 50% of Chicago adults being vaccinated, less than 50% of LatinX and less than 40% Black residents have gotten even one shot. Vaccines are not being trusted because of a mix of mis-information, purposeful or not, and "fake news" to either scare people from taking it or make them skeptical of any of the vaccines.

It shouldn't be surprising that one of the leading problems with vaccine hesitancy was mentioned during one of the interviews.

High school junior, RN said "When the vaccines were first coming out, that when you got the vaccine you couldn't really get Covid" "Then turns out later that people could still get it even if you're vaccinated" This is an example of misinformation, not quite fake news because at that point no one quite knew what was going to happen with the vaccine but rumors formed and created a fake notion that "they lied" almost. The next thing to back up the vaccine's credibility is something high school senior HP said about his parents.

 "Both my parents are scientists so they were very trusting of the scientific method so they were more than happy to be some of the first to get it" This infers that if the community of scientists can trust a creation of their doing (Not literally HPs parents but the community they are in as scientists) then it should be safe for all. It's the opposite of hypocrisy; its setting the example and holding oneself to a standard one would hold others to.   

Where did this mistrust come from? If someone had had a good life, a good family and didn't need to worry about many things then they may not feel the need to distrust the government and wonder why others hate it so much. Officially it started with The Pentagon Papers. During the Vietnam War many lies were spread to say that the United States were "winning", and that it was worth staying in conflict with Vietnam. After this, citizens found it harder and harder to trust the government's words. For people of color who have long been experimented on by the government (without the government getting consent), they might see it as another experiment. The weight of that distrust might result in the United States not being able to reach herd immunity with Covid-19.